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World Cup claim Cameroon's games were rigged investigated

Ben Rumsby

Cameroon's Alex Song was sent off but denies any knowledge of matchfixing. Photo: Reuters

The World Cup was at the centre of an extraordinary match-fixing storm after a formal investigation was launched into allegations Cameroon rigged all of their games at the tournament.

Cameroon's football federation announced it was probing claims the African nation deliberately lost their Group A fixtures against Mexico, Croatia and Brazil in what - if true - would be the biggest such scandal to rock football.

The Cameroon federation began its inquiry into the nature of the team's exit from the tournament following accusations from the world's most notorious match-fixer, made days after an undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph and Channel 4's Dispatches programme exposed links between alleged fixers and Ghana's Football Association.

Cameroon lost all three of their group games. Photo: Getty Images

In a Facebook exchange with a German journalist, convicted fraudster Wilson Raj Perumal warned there were "seven rotten apples" in the Cameroon team who were "on the take" and "fixed all three matches" in Brazil. Those comments were published in the magazine Der Spiegel, which also claimed Perumal had correctly predicted the scoreline of Cameroon's 4-0 defeat to Croatia and the sending-off of one of their players.

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That aspect of the story was at the centre of a growing row last night after Perumal angrily denied discussing the fixture with journalist Rafael Buschmann in advance of it being played. In a statement released to the Telegraph, accompanied by screen grabs of the Facebook exchanges he said were in dispute, Perumal also admitted he had no evidence to support his assertion that Cameroon's matches had been rigged.

The man who claims in his autobiography, Kelong Kings, to have helped two countries qualify for the 2010 World Cup by fixing their games - and to have attempted to rig Premier League matches - wrote: "The Facebook chat with the Der Spiegel journalist took place a few days after the match - June 21st, as confirmed by my Facebook log - and was but an informal assessment of the behaviour of the Cameroon team at the Brazil 2014 World Cup after they had played two of their three group stage matches, including the one with Croatia.

"At no time did I make reference to four goals being scored or to a red card being issued. At no time did I suggest that I had any way of corroborating or substantiating what was meant to be an educated guess based on my extensive match-fixing experience. Last but not least: at no time was I informed by the Der Spiegel journalist that our chat was going to end up in the German publication."

In a statement last night, Buschmann said: "We firmly stand by our assertion, that Mr Perumal wrote in a Facebook chat with Der Spiegel some hours before the World Cup match Croatia vs Cameroon that the result of the match will be a 4-0 victory for Croatia and that a player of Cameroon will get a red card in the first half."

The journalist did to respond to requests for evidence, in contrast to Perumal, whose screen grabs indicated the relevant exchange with Buschmann began on June 21, three days after the Cameroon-Croatia match. He posted (sic): "Camerron is on the take I think. they deliberately loose. they have i guess 7 rotten apples in the team."

In another exchange last Thursday, he added (sic): "In my opinion they fixed all 3 matches. they are around 5 to 7 black sheeesshheps." He also posted that he did not know for sure whether the games had been rigged, writing (sic): "i don't follow all these nowadays. low profile. now." It is not impossible that Perumal deleted earlier exchanges but he denied this.

In the Cameroon-Croatia game former Arsenal midfielder Alex Song was sent off before half-time for elbowing Mario Mandzukic. A source close to Barcelona player Song told the Telegraph yesterday: "Alex Song has no knowledge whatsoever of any incident involving matchfixing."